I am with you, guys. The key for Facebook success is its strength in API area. Can it offer really cross-platform development environment? Can it offer easy-to-use API? Maybe RESTful API or web service based on SOA is of better choice in this battle. This battle is not fully comparable to the ban-out of Flash by Apple.

Right David, I thought the same. I can imagine discussion inside Apple of how to block this, but that horse has left the barn. No way for Apple, or Google or Microsoft for that matter, to block Facebook without users revolting. This will be fun to watch.

I think Flash proves that cross platform is hard to do. You end up with either spending a lot of developement trying to make it work well individually on a platform. Or compromise a solution for every platform. You see this with browsers, software applications and even issues between a app on one mobile platform vs another. While I don't agree with the Apple phylosophy of a closed garden today when so many don't adopt just one branding or operating system. Trying to cover all the bases is just as wrong. For example, while Windows OS still dominates the PC market. Its mobile Windows OS barely registers in users and the tablets are not much better. So although Microsoft is trying to make a lot of platforms work together. You have to have products that users want to own to make that happen. Apple on the other hand has a popular smartphone, tablet and Mac lineup that many have adapted as a complete platform complementing each other. Google has also done this to some extent. Facebook most likely will do more web ased apps which will blur the lines of platforms more easily. But given the recent stats which show most people access the web through apps on their smartphones and tablets vs a web browser. Might indicate that the web browser is becoming irrelavent. Google has placed a lot of emphasis on web based apps in Chrome and Chrome OS. But is this really where things are going?

I'd say the developers were enthusiastic about Facebook's renewed statement of commitment. Zuckerberg end announced next year's F8, to reassure developers that Facebook is serious. Now keep in mind that Facebook's announcements were aimed to make Facebook development tech more appealing for people making apps. Anonymous login isn't about Facebook giving up on personal information; it's about helping people trust apps with FB Login enough to try them (so they can then later provide personal information).

If Facebook can translate its vast reach into must-have services, it will redefine what it means to be cross-platform. Yesterday's platforms didn't require a data layer. Apple's policies were aimed at protecting paid app sales. Tomorrow's platforms will rely much more heavily on a data layer, from Facebook or someone else, because advertising, engagement, and other marketing data will become so much more important to make free apps profitable.

You can't begin at a better point for developers than by stabilizing the API. Facebook isn't coming from a particular technology school as it builds out user engagement and interaction features, and it's got little to lose by sharing those features with others. It continues to use an open approach to draw a contrast between itself and Apple, Google and Microsoft. Its Open Compute hardware design and open data center specs lead the way.

I never would have thought of Flash as a point of comparison, but it's an interesting one. One advantage of the nature of the Facebook platform as a data/API framework is that Apple and others with platforms to protect can't easily lock it out the way Apple banned Flash from its mobile devices. Facebook's bigger challenge will be winning developer mindshare, proving that its APIs are valuable to the point of being indispensible for web and mobile development.

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.